This Woman Has a Powerful Warning for Police Protecting White Supremacy

May 23, 2016 / Cat Brooks

(Content Warning: police violence, murder)

“We are not going to stop until you stop killing us.”

Wow. Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, testified about police brutality to the San Francisco Police Commission – and everybody should listen to her message.

Just last week, San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr resigned after his officers killed yet another citizen, a 27-year-old unarmed black woman. This follows a terrible string of incidents with the SFPD, including the discovery of racist and homophobic text messages sent between officers.

To many of us, it’s clear that white supremacy has an influence on police departments and the entire criminal justice system around the country – and this needs to stop.

In this testimony, Cat Brooks discusses the killing of Mario Woods, another young black shooting victim of the SFPD. She captures the spirit of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality activists everywhere – and her powerful warning will give you chills.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

My name is Cat Brooks. I’m the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and a member of the Black Power Network, and I’m actually based in Oakland but here supporting San Francisco.

After Mario was murdered, murdered, executed in broad daylight in your city, I asked myself, how long– I didn’t ask myself, I posted on Facebook, as a matter of fact. How long is it gonna take for the chief to come out and tell the community that we didn’t see what we thought we saw on that video? How long was it going to take for the police to come out and tell us that we didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding that murder?

Because that’s the tape. That’s what happens every time. We see what happens, and then you trot yourself out and tell us that we are not intelligent enough to understand that we saw a black man gunned down execution style in broad daylight in the streets of San Francisco.

Somehow you think that talking to us like we are children who have not been examining, watching, studying you and your system for hundreds of years as we figure out how to tear it down, push back, and eventually win, as you continue to talk to us like children, what you are doing is inciting the rage of the people.

I want to be clear with you all that a new day has come to San Francisco, to Oakland, to Baltimore, to Ferguson, to Atlanta. There is a movement sweeping this country, and we are not gonna stop until you stop killing us. Until you stop killing us, we will continue to shut it down, interrupt your business as usual.

We’re gonna take to the streets. We’re gonna interrupt your election cycles. And I have news for you, Chief, sir. We are going to shut it down until you resign or until all of you get the courage to fire him. And Oakland will be here every time! We’re bringing the east back!

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Cat Brooks is an Oakland-based activist, momma, actress, poet, and performer for the people. She is co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and a member of the Black Power Network. Follow her on Twitter @CatsCommentary.